Molly Ness on teaching spelling in contemporary classrooms

Dr. Molly Ness recently published an article in the Westchester County Business Journal print edition on the importance of teaching spelling in elementary school and how teachers can update their spelling instruction for contemporary classrooms.

Some may argue that spelling is an antiquated concept. After all, students today rely on their computer’s spellcheck and autocomplete features on smartphones. If “cuz” is commonly accepted in texting, do students really need to learn the proper spelling of “because?”

Indeed, spelling holds an important role in a child’s language and literacy development. Students who are better spellers are better readers and writers. Accurate spelling reflects more advanced linguistic knowledge. Teaching spelling has a strong effect on reading fluency, the ability to read text with appropriate pace, expression, and automaticity. There is synchrony among reading, writing, and spelling development: the way in which a student spells a word provides important information about the student reads words.

Founded in 1841, Fordham is the Jesuit University of New York, offering exceptional education distinguished by the Jesuit tradition to more than 15,100 students in its four undergraduate colleges and its six graduate and professional schools.